This invention relates to a system for controlling a digital signal receiver and a digital recording/reproducing apparatus through the user interface of the recording/reproducing apparatus.
Digital broadcast signal receiving systems are used by video program consumers to receive, record, and/or display digital video programming distributed through cable networks or other distribution systems such as direct satellite broadcast systems. Such receiving systems are typically comprised of a digital video signal receiving apparatus and a display apparatus and may additionally include a digital video signal recording/reproducing apparatus. Each apparatus typically includes a separate and independent user interface and control device for controlling the particular apparatus. Also, such receiving systems usually include one or more remote control devices for separately controlling each apparatus.
In a cable network or direct satellite broadcast system, each subscriber needs at least a signal receiving apparatus and a display apparatus in order to receive and display video programming transmitted through the network. While some subscribers may be satisfied with simply displaying video programming concurrent with its reception, others may further desire to record and later reproduce the transmitted video programming. To accommodate these different levels of signal processing, modular digital broadcast signal receiving systems, including a signal receiving apparatus and an optionally-attached recording/reproducing apparatus, have been developed. Such a system has the advantage of being flexible; signal reception and/or signal recording/reproducing functions can be offered to cable network subscribers simply by adding or removing modules.
Where each of the signal receiving, display, and recording/reproducing apparatuses in a modular receiving system is independently controlled by the user, the task of configuring each apparatus is often a complex endeavor. Typically, a user requires operational information about all three apparatuses in order to properly configure and coordinate the operation of each with that of the others. Through a cumbersome process of juggling remote controllers, or switching among the control modes of a single remote controller, the user supplies control commands to each apparatus, individually, through its own separate user interface. To further complicate matters, each user interface may utilize different or even inconsistent input commands to effect otherwise identical functions.
In a related development, a modular receiving system has been proposed in which the control device of the video signal receiver functions to control both the receiver and an associated video recording/reproducing apparatus. Advantageously, the control device is operated by a user through a single user interface. Such a system, although providing a simplified mechanism for controlling the individual apparatuses which together form a receiving system, is not particularly cost-effective. A video signal receiver capable of controlling other apparatuses would necessarily include a more complicated and more expensive user interface device and controller device as compared to a video signal receiver that is limited to controlling its own internal functions.
This additional complexity and expense of such a device is a significant concern since a potentially prevalent implementation of the modular receiving system includes only the video signal receiver. Such an implementation would likely be used by consumers desirous of only receiving and simultaneously displaying broadcast video programming. It is expected that such consumers would be reluctant to bear the additional expense of a video receiver capable of controlling other apparatuses when the additional functionality will remain unutilized.
Hence, an economical and flexible receiving system having only one user interface and one control device operating to control the entire receiving system is still needed.